A magnetic knitting aromatic polymer as a new sorbent for use in solid-phase extraction of organics

Magnetic knitting aromatic polymers (Fe₃O₄/KAPs) are introduced here as a new kind of sorbents. KAPs are hyper-cross-linked-polymers that were prepared via a Friedl-Crafts reaction from triphenylphosphine and benzene as building blocks. The Fe₃O₄/KAP composite was obtained by coprecipitation of KAP with magnetite nanoparticles. The resulting Fe₃O₄/KAP is shown to be a viable magnetic sorbent for various organic materials such as the phenylurea herbicides (PUHs), including metoxuron, monuron, chlortoluron, monolinuron and buturon, and also for various phthalates, polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons and chlorophenols. The Fe₃O₄/KAP was characterized by means of Brunauer-Emmett-Teller surface area measurements, Fourier-transform infrared spectroscopy, thermogravimetry, X-ray diffraction, scanning electron microscopy and transmission electron microscopy. Following desorption with acetonitrile, the analytes were quantified by using HPLC with UV detection. The effects of adsorbent dosage, extraction time, sample pH, ionic strength, desorption solvent and desorption time were optimized for the PUHs. Under optimal conditions, response is linear from 0.5-1.0 up to 50 ng·mL^-1 for the five PUHs. Lower limits of detection range between 0.05 and 0.30 ng·mL^-1. Other figures of merit include (a) high enrichment factors (60-297), (b) good recoveries (91.8-106.5%), and (c) relative standard deviations of <8.4%. The method was successfully applied to analysis of the PUHs in real samples (bottled mixed juice, milk and soymilk). The results indicate that such Fe₃O₄/KAPs have a wide application scope as an adsorbent for use in magnetic solid phase extraction. Graphical abstract A magnetic knitting aromatic polymer based nanocomposite (Fe₃O₄/KAP) was prepared by a one-pot method and explored as an absorbent for magnetic solid-phase extraction (MSPE) of phenylurea herbicides (PUHs) from bottled mixed juice, milk and soymilk samples before quantitation by HPLC with UV detection.